Network slows down at 5 for 20 minutes

I've having a strange problem. At 5 pm everyday all my PC's slow down to a crawl for 10 to 20 minutes. Then they come back fine. The only thingk I can think is something is running on the network at that time. Outlook keeps giving the connecting to server error, internet takes for ever for things to come up... etc

I don't have any processes running then that I can find unless the guy before me hide something somewhere. Auto updates go at midnight, sql tasks run after midnight backups start at 7.

I was thinking of setting up a snort server or something liek that to view the traffic to see if I can pin point whats going on? I this a good idea or is there a better way to trap and evaluate the traffic? I have a mix of managed and unmanaged switches.

Check to see if there are any backups set to run at that time. Is the traffic just on the local subnet/network or is Internet traffic? A check of the router interface at that time would tell. Perhaps it's a broadcast storm being initiated at that time.

If you have a Windows Server 2003, you could use Network Monitor to trap data. It can be installed from Add/Remove Programs > Windows Components > Management and Monitoring (I think that's where it is).

Looks like the problem is most likely McAfee. I just got looking and by default the updates run at 5pm plus or minus an hour. I just downloaded the protection pilot and I'm trying to set the update time to 11:30 PM, of course most of the PC's are off then so maybe I should set it for noon....

0

Featured Post

Highfive is so simple that setting up every meeting room takes just minutes and every employee will be able to start or join a call from any room with ease. Never be called into a meeting just to get it started again. This is how video conferencing should work!

Hi Guys
After a whole weekend getting wake on lan over the internet working, I thought I would share the experience.
Your firewall has to have a port forward for port 9 udp to your local broadcast x.x.x.255 but if that doesnt work, do it to a …